Fundamental principles of modeling terrain landscape

[Qingyuan chen]

This is an article about how to model terrain landscape,hope you like it.

Main thread of modeling terrain landscape

Facing a terrain project,where should we begin ? Although it is a puzzling question, there is one thing we can confirm :all works of terrain modeling are base on a net of roads.If a part of road is modified,all things connected with that road will have to be adjusted.For example,if you first make the curbs of a road and then change the elevation of the road,previous work will be wasted.So,the most logical principles should be :First build a road as accuratly as possible ,then think about how to add new faces to connect the between road and the terrain.

In general,three issues are focused by 3D modeling artists:good topology,the presentation of slopes and rolling roads , the connecting if the road with the terrain.

First of all,we talk about the question paid most attention to by 3D modeling artists :how to connect the road and terrain

In this article,Plugin mentioned is TerrainAxe

 

 

1 The connection of roads and terrains

There are two main ways to connect roads and terrains:

1.For terrain that already exists,such as a terrain built from contour lines or DEM data,you can first delete the faces covered by the roads,then stitch their boundary together

This task can be usually done by creating a big polygon with its borders,then using StitchVerts to cut the new polygon to get reasonable topology.StitchVerts is the most efficient way to connect vertices,as it can quickly stitch different polygons together.If you are using the Lite version ,advConnectVts is an alternative.

Use StitchVerts connect roads and terrains

2.For those areas enclosed or semi-enclosed by roads,maybe the original terrain is missing or un-useful,new terrain need to be re-created. Thus you can cap these areas to create a new polygon,then use Slice to cut and get grid-like topology,then relax them or paint desired appearance with 3dsmax’s brush tools

Create terrain with Slice

the way is also suit for first situation.If you don’t like the topology created with contour lines,you can use MoveVerts to conform vertices of the grid-like faces to original terrain.So,you need not to stitch them.

Use MoveVerts re-construct terrain

2 Topologizing

To express sloped landscape and ups ans downs of road, topologizing or re-topologizing is necessary.There are some requirements for topologizing:A road should be made up of continuous quad polygons as much as possible,as shown below in left picture;Some ground pavement need some cutting operations to make the polygon topology more reasonable;Narrow and long triangles should be avoided as much as possible. The more reasonable topology, the better the effect at render time, as shown below in the right picture.

( to be continued)

Edited September 10, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Matt McDonald]

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[Qingyuan chen]

2 Topologizing

To express sloped landscape and ups ans downs of road, topologizing or re-topologizing is necessary.There are some requirements for topologizing:A road should be made up of continuous quad polygons as much as possible,as shown below in left picture;Some ground pavement need some cutting operations to make the polygon topology more reasonable;Narrow and long triangles should be avoided as much as possible. The more reasonable topology, the better the effect at render time, as shown below in the right picture.

For achieve above goals,some cutting tools will be often used,such as CutPerToEdge(cut perpendicularly to edge),CutByAgl(cut along angular bisector from vertices on border),Cut2Verts(cut between 2 vertices),Connectverts and StichVerts(connect two team of vertices) ,and so on

 

From Left to Right:Cut perpendicularly to edge,Cut along angular bisector, Connect two teams of vertex

Road can also be created by SweepEdge with mid-lines ( to be continued)

Edited January 20, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Qingyuan chen]

Some weld tools are also necesseray,you can visit TerrainAxe website to look for them

3 Slope pavement and ups and downs of road

Slope pavement

Such a tool is indispensable:when vertices of surface fall to slope,only z coordinates are modified but xy coordinates keep unchanged,that is ,make vertices align to slope plane along Z axis ,or the structure in top view will be damaged.MoveVerts can do this.

Slope landscape

 

Ups and downs of Road

On expressing ups and downs of road,notice that the road should always keep its section horizontal,can’t stick on terrain like cloth .So the tool should be, with selected edges on one side of road and several vertices at special elevation,which can output the smooth transition of curve and meanwhile map this side of the evelation data to the other side,thus we can get the road to transit smoothly between elevations.

you can use smoothroad(linear),SmoothRoad(curve),SmoothRoad(npts),SmoothRoad(blur) to complete this work.

Use SmoothRoad(blur）to smooth road

The article describe only several main issuses of landscape modeling from the outer frame,it should be as a main direction.Hope that every readers can get desired help and have a good beginning.

 

That is all:o

Edited January 20, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Tim Fairbanks]

This plugin/script looks really useful, but I've now wasted an hour trying to get the Trial version to install in 3dsmax 2016. I'm not a noob - I've been working with 3dsmax since 1990, so I have decades of experience getting things to work in Max.

 

The installation process is rife with errors and failures, and the documentation regarding installation problems is erroneous and/or simply not helpful in resolving the issues.

 

Also, the script includes an "Uninstall" function, but that fails to completely remove the script file(s) placed in the 3dsmax 20xx > scripts > startup folder, which requires manually tracking down and deleting the problematic file(s) when 3dsmax errors appear at startup.

 

Priced at $220 USD, this appears to be an overpriced, semi-professional effort by a single individual.

 

Geeze - if you can't even get a script to install without issues, how well does the rest of the plugin work?

 

Caveat Emptor.

 

[Please refer to my subsequent post #9 BELOW...]

Edited February 3, 2016 by TimF

[Qingyuan chen]

Remove so many files? Why not email to me or leave a message in my forums?you will soon get a reply .

Nothing need to be copied to the root directory of 3dsmax,

,Just point the path to "AxeRoot" directory of installation package is OK.

 

Also ,the post is just used to talk about how to build terrain landscape,without considering what used.

If you have any question about the tools ,I prefer you email to me .this can save your time and avoid useless work.

 

And……Have you been using 3dsmax since 1990?

The first version of 3dsmax was published in 1996

Edited January 29, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Tim Fairbanks]

3dsmax was formerly Called "3D Studio", and was developed by a company called The Yost Group, and primarily developed by Gary Yost. I exchanged many messages with 'G' on the long-dead CompuServe Forum. I started using "3D Studio for DOS Release 2" in 1990. 3D Studio/Yost Group was eventually acquired by Autodesk as "3D Studio MAX", and eventually became 3ds Max.

 

So, YES, I have been using it since 1990, but most people have no idea where the "3ds" in 3ds max originated (and where the .3DS file format originated), and never used the Microsoft DOS operating system. It's easier for me to just say I've been using 3dsmax since 1990.

 

I posted here because this plugin does not seem to be developed to the point where it can be considered a "professional grade" tool.

 

Like I said in my post - it appears that potentially it could be very useful, and you may be an excellent code/maxscript programmer, but this needs to be more widely tested and developed before it should be considered a professional plugin. I'm not trying to ruin your reputation - I am a sole proprietor myself - but most of the people on this forum are professionals who need fully developed tools that function without problems. Especially at a $220 USD price point.

 

BTW - your tutorial video "Make Road on Terrain-part01" is nowhere to be found on your website or YouTube.

[Qingyuan chen]

I am first a 3D modeler and an animator,then a programmer.Almost all things of the plugin were wrote for our terrain projects,every thing has been tested by many pepoles,then I organized them to a product.

 

It seems that you believe your own professional skills very much and think that I introduce a tool with problems and worry about someone else will not get desired features and suffer a loss,but no matter how many years you use a software and how believe own professional skills,you should follow the guide of the designer to install the plugin in right way at least once then come to a conclusion.

 

Is it better to help me fix the problem than waitting for a plugin without any bug if you find any bug?

 

Besides, the Lite version is free and just for test ,anyone have nothing to lost.No one than I pay more attention to the thing,becaues once a man think it is not worth,it will be diffcult to get him visit the plugin again

 

The installation is very easy ,even if for a noob, you need just less than one minute to know whether the plugin has a problem,not one hour. Need 3 steps to install and DON'T copy anything to the root directory of 3ds max(But before begin, the requirements of the installation must be meet)

1.Drag UIMan.mse into 3ds max

2.Press TheAxePath button Choose "AxeRoot" directory of the intallation package

3.Press "Install" button.

 

It is impossible there is no one bug absolutly in a software, the improvement of a software need more peoples to test,include gurus and noobs , you every one who like it

 

I have been using 3DS 3.0-4.0 since 1996,then turn to 3ds max.I have ever liked 3DS very much,but for 3DS,the 3ds max is a completely different thing,because 3DS can not be used to make complex models, there were less features, no editable polygon ,the mesh object is very weak.Few pepole call them as a same thing.

-------------------------------

Tutorial video "Make Road on Terrain-part01" has not been published ,because it just topologizing,need less skill,

Edited February 3, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Tim Fairbanks]

First of all, you posted on this forum to market and sell your product, so you expose yourself to the uncensored opinions of the people who visit this forum. The readers (and potential customers) following this thread have a right to be aware of the problems they may have.

 

Secondly, I mentioned my years experience mainly to illustrate that I have several decades of dealing with this type of issue with plugins. Not because I have some type of superiority complex, but because experience is relevant in the area of troubleshooting problems with software applications. And I did acknowledge your own skills as a programmer, with no attempt at a personal attack on your abilities or experience.

 

Thirdly, you brought into question the veracity of my claim to having used 3dsmax since 1990, so I felt it necessary to defend my qualifications.

 

Also, last week I spent 4 hours working directly with the programmers at VIZPARK to resolve a problem with their new "Material Manager" plugin (which resulted in their release of an incremental update to the plugin), so I am not very patient with plugins that don't install/work as advertised. I have work to do, and can't afford spending hours of my time troubleshooting installation issues just so I can evaluate a product's usefulness in my production pipeline.

 

Rather than communicate with me via Personal Message, you've opted to continue this discussion in an open, public forum, so I will continue to do so.

 

That being said... what the he||, I'll give your plugin another shot... To readers of this thread, I apologize for the long-ish explanation below.

 

INSTALLATION-------------------------------------------------------

 

Following your steps #1 & #2 resulted in the following error:

 

After restarting 3dsmax using "Run as Administrator", the following error was displayed:

 

I clicked "Ok" and re-attempted to drag the UIMan.mse into the 3ds max window, but it was disallowed by 3ds max application - nothing happened. It's apparent that a partial installation has occurred, leaving files in my 3ds max installation folder(s), which required a manual search & delete to eliminate the files left behind by the failed installation of the TerrainAxe script.

 

I located and deleted "wakeUpAxe2.ms" from my 3dsmax "\scripts\startup" folder.

 

I restarted 3dsmax using "Run as Administrator. Once again a second attempt to drag UIMan.mse into the 3ds max window was disallowed by 3ds max application and nothing happens. An attempt to manually run the UIMan.mse script using the "Run Script" function in 3dsmax resulted in the same error.

 

It occurred to me that the installer is located on one of my network drives, and in Windows 10 'Run as Administrator" sometimes prevents installations from a network drive. After copying the "TerrainAxeLite 160128" folder to my Desktop, the installation finally succeeded.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

So... TerrainAxe IS installed now. But not without problems

 

As I said previously (and something to which you partially ackowledge): this plugin "needs to be more widely tested and developed before it should be considered a professional plugin".

 

Regarding the Tutorial videos: "Tutorial video Make Road on Terrain-part01" has not been published ,because it just topologizing,need less skill,"

How are WE supposed to know that? "Part 2" starts with roads and terrain already in place. How were those roads created? Why are the polygons in the road surface Quads rather than Triangles (which is the 3dsmax default when creating meshes from splines)?

 

I realize that you've explained that in your posts #3 & #4 HERE, but when viewing the Tutorials on YouTube, that explanation is not provided, leaving the question "What did I miss in "Part 1".

 

'Nuff said. I'm done with this.

 

Good luck to you.

 

UPDATE: After shutting 3dsmax down, and restarting several hours later, the TerrainAxe Script failed to load, and produced the error message #2 (attached above). It has been removed from my system.

Edited February 3, 2016 by TimF

[Qingyuan chen]

The reply is delay because of chinese new year.

I don't want to break the atmoshpere of technical discuss of the forums.So ,I talked about the train of thought about terrrain landscape modeling.Thus,even if a reader don't choose the pulgin ,he will get some useful advices, isn't it? So，I told you it was a improper ways to discuss the pulgin in thus forums ,espically about the sell details.

 

As far the proplem you mentioned , a same error message has ever been reported by an user before , the reason is just that he deleted the intallation package,but the package should be keep existing there.

 

Actually ,I have published the plugin on scriptspot.com before posted here,many people try it,some of them reported bugs,and I fixed them, at last the plugin can keep running in a stable level. No one anounced how the plugin is once find an error.I think that there is few people need your kind of assistance,just like a telephone,all things must be experience by users themselves.An user just need to care whether a plugin is what he wanted and running well,all troubles will be fixed by me.

But it seems that you did not want to ask for help,even not want to eliminate the possibility of your wrong operations.

 

The pulgin maybe an only solution for modeling terrain landscape in the case of without sufficient prepaired data,hope these need it get the desired help.

 

However ,I should say thanks for your patient test.

Edited February 12, 2016 by qingyuanchen

[Qingyuan chen]

I have uploaded the first part of road tutorial ---------topologizing road

Please visit the page http://www.flyingcfx.com/enjoy/?p=882

[beestee]

The tools look very useful. Looks like you have pushed it pretty far from where it was at the beginning of the year.

[Qingyuan chen]

Thank you.

I spended a lot of time to make it easier to understand.